Madarasas are moving ahead

Andhra’s Madrasas are becoming modern. Islamic schools are revamping their mathematics, science and social studies. Efforts are being made to bring these institutions into mainstream education.

The Rajiv Vidya Mission (RVM) is trying to seed this change, and has invited a lot of Madrasas to register with it so that it can support them with teachers, textbooks and computers. Mid-day meals are also served to them. However, a lot more is to be achieved in Guntur district, as many ‘madrasas’ are yet outside the Education Department.

Out of 200-plus madrasas, only 61 full-time Madrasa are being supported by the RVM, while 15 more will be included soon, according to the Project Officer, D. Chaitanya. Almost 3,833 boys and girls are studying in 61 RVM-supported Madrasas up to secondary school. It even has ‘madrasa mobilisers’ who tour the district and explain the benefits of registering and getting modern education.

The local MLC, K.S. Lakshman Rao, explained that the literacy rate among Muslims is low, at just 54 per cent, which falls below the national figure of 67 per cent. The low rate of literacy is mainly because of the traditional occupations in which Muslims have remained for generations. Still, the situation is different today, as more children are getting educated every year.

However, the Muslim welfare society stressed that they were hesitant to take financial support for madrasas from the government, which banked on liquor to help it generate its finances. However, it appealed to people with benevolent intentions to donate for their modernization. They hope that they could collect the funds at one large madrasa at Nambur and then again redistribute from there to its branches, according to their religious rules.